OPINION 

Dai Le

The Albanese government might claim its new 5 per cent deposit scheme is a win for battlers, but in Fowler, the reality is a housing and cost-of-living crisis that no fancy headline can disguise. The median house price in Fowler has soared to $1.1m, surging nearly 8 per cent in just one year. For the average family, saving for a 20 per cent deposit would take almost 17 years, a marathon hardly anyone could finish, especially when rent and bills keep climbing.

Even with a 5 per cent deposit deal, buyers in Fowler still need to stump up $55,000 cash up front. With working parents or young families already paying a median rent of $652 a week (about 40 per cent of household earnings), this so called “leg up” barely moves the needle. But this isn’t just about homebuyers missing out. The crunch goes deeper. With Fowler having an unmet housing need of 8100 homes, there simply aren’t enough houses to go around.

More than 1200 residents in our community are homeless right now. That’s not a housing “challenge”, that’s a full-blown emergency. To add insult to injury, the dropping of solar rebates has meant a 13 per cent rise in energy bills, squeezing families who are already stretched. And here’s the kicker: the push for net zero is leaving almost zero in many families’ pockets at the end of the week. Yes, a cleaner future is important, but right now, ordinary people are bearing the brunt with rocketing household costs while the government spends billions chasing climate targets that seem far removed from the realities faced in places like Fowler.

Even when councils try to help, infrastructure bottlenecks stifle progress. Fairfield Council has zoned land for 20,000 homes in Cecil Park, enough to make a real dent in the crisis. But without the promised East-West Metro
linking the area to Western Sydney Airport and jobs, no developer is going to break ground. This is the real world, not a photo opportunity. With so much on the line, I’m asking: when will the Labor government confront the policy apparatchiks and get those living in Canberra to realise their policies don’t connect with middle Australia?

Actions, not announcements, are how governments earn trust, and they have been missing for far too long.

Dai Le is independent MP for Fowler.

Source: Albo’s 5% no gift in Western Sydney | The Daily Telegraph